Free Hard Core (Hard As Nails Book 3) by Hope Conrad

hers.
    Her guardian angel.
    And I’ll fucking die to protect her.
     

Chapter Twelve
     
     
    Alyssa
     
    I’m not surprised that Axel is gone when I wake; but I am surprised by my disappointment. I’d made it clear that I wanted nothing more from him than sex. So the hollow feeling in my stomach at the realization I’m alone makes absolutely no sense.
    Maybe I am surprised he left, after all. Last night, he seemed hell-bent on proving that I need him in my life. Kind of hard to do if he’s going to fuck me then leave, even if it is what I asked him to do.
    God, I’m a lunatic, I think. The guy’s better off without me.
    My eyes shift to the late morning sun streaming through the window and casting a white glow in my bedroom. My disappointment aside, I feel an odd combination of buzzed and serene, still reeling from the intensity of last night, but also reveling in the peaceful space that is my apartment.
    I raise my hands to my eyes to clear the sleep from the creases, but I realize something’s off. My nose twitches. What’s that smell? I sniff the air and cock my head toward my bedroom door.
    Eggs? Bacon, too?
    My heart beats faster and I’m suddenly smiling.
    Axel stayed.
    I throw the covers off and jump into a pair of shorts. I find him in the kitchen with a white apron covering his bare chest.
    “Good morning, beautiful,” he says through a shit-eating grin. “How do you like your eggs?”
    Any way you make them, I think, but I stop myself from saying the words out loud.
    I press my lips together and turn around, staring at my open bedroom door. What the hell am I doing, skipping out to greet him with a smile on my face? I need to play it cool. I need to remember why I have to keep things just about sex between us. I have too much in my life—my dad’s health, my non-existent acting career, and my approaching stripping career, for starters—to deal with someone like Axel, who’s already said he wants to “own” me.
    With new resolve, I take a breath, then turn back around. He’s staring at me and there’s still a hint of a smile on his face.
    “Anything wrong or are you always this weird in the morning?”
    “I’m always this weird,” I mumble. “But what the hell are you doing?”
    He holds up a spatula. “What does it look like I’m doing?”
    “Cooking. But why?”
    “I was hungry,” he says as he puts down the spatula and picks up a fork to flip a row of bacon. “Figured you might be hungry too.”
    “Axel, this isn’t what I told you I wanted.”
    “Don’t worry.” He points to the door. “I locked the door.”
    I bite my lip to keep from smiling again. The smart ass. “You were supposed to do that on your way out.”
    He shrugs. “I needed my beauty sleep. Plus, didn’t make sense for me to leave when I was just going to be back today anyway.”
    “Is that right?”
    “That’s right. I’m finding I want to get to know you better. Outside the bedroom.”
    I cross my arms. “You mean you want to fuck on the couch? The floor? Against the wall? I’m game.”
    He puts down the fork and shifts his weight against the counter beside the stove. “Ah, I wondered how long it would take you to try to put me back in the ‘we’re just having sex’ box. Didn’t take long at all.”
    “That’s because that’s all we are having, Axel,” I point out.
    “What are you afraid of? That you might develop feelings for me and I’ll bail?”
    “Afraid?” I shake my head. “I’m not afraid of anything,” I lie through my teeth. I’m afraid of a thousand and one things—my father dying, spiders, snakes, heights, motorcycles, and getting close to anyone just to get hurt again. But he does not need to know any of that. I could only imagine if he knew. He’d take my biggest fears and run with them, telling me I had to face them in order to live life to the fullest. I’m just trying to survive one day at a time.
    He shrugs and flips an egg. “If you want to play it like that,